DATE: Wednesday, July 16, 1997              TAG: 9707160438

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A12  EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MEREDITH COHN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   89 lines

LONE WOLF TAKES LONG JOURNEY, ENDS UP IN CHESAPEAKE TRACKING DEVICES NEITHER GUARANTEE WOLVES' SAFETY NOR KEEP THEM WITHIN BOUNDARIES.

The journey by highway takes about 1 1/2 hours. But for a hearty red wolf, the trip from a North Carolina wildlife preserve to a Chesapeake farm took several months and covered at least 200 miles.

Wildlife officials marveled that the lone traveler could survive for so long without being shot, attacked by other wolves or hit by a car.

The trek began when Red Wolf No. 745, experiencing what wildlife experts refer to as ``happy feet,'' left his family and the half-million acre range surrounding the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge to see what the world held.

It was a year ago last spring when wolf program leader Michael Morse lost the signal from Red Wolf No. 745, one of about 50 wolves wearing a radio collar for tracking. Fears abounded that the wolf would become a grim statistic in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife program, which has lost about 50 wolves during the past 10 years to cars, other wolves and gunshots.

Several months passed before rumors began circulating that a landowner had spotted a ``strange dog'' on his Chesapeake farm, close to the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge. With black-and-buff coloring and big ears, red wolves resemble German shepherds but have sleeker frames, longer legs and maybe a bit of red fur on their necks.

The refuge manager, Lloyd Culp, was fresh from a seminar on the red wolf and decided his southern colleagues might be missing one of theirs.

More said of the wandering wolf: ``He was just out there looking around. He found a nice habitat on the edge of the swamp that was similar to what he was used to here. He settled, and I suspect he would have stayed.''

Morse and Alligator River's director, Mike Bryant, took an airplane north and listened for the radio collar's beeps.

``He was moving every night,'' Morse said. ``We were hanging back. But once he settled down we were able to track him. That's one reason they are endangered, they are easy to trap.''

Morse flew over Chesapeake every other day for weeks, making sure Wolf No. 745 didn't take off again. With aid from the Dismal Swamp refuge, the landowner, and the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, they chose a spot for a rubber-padded leg trap. The wolf was caught within days and sent home in a truck.

No one knows what led No. 745to venture so far away from his wildlife haven, seemingly ideal for a wolf, which needs at least 10,000 acres to roam.

While biologists say the North Carolina-based program is a success, with about 80 wolves living in the Alligator River refuge area, Wolf No. 745 is likely one of the few to roam to Virginia. The shy animals generally consider that state's subdivisions, industry and busy roads unwelcoming.

Wildlife managers retraced No. 745's steps this way:

From agricultural land in the northern end of Alligator River, west of Manteo and the Outer Banks, the wolf and his brother made their way to Plymouth, probably at a leisurely 3- to 4-mph gait, avoiding the Albemarle Sound just to the north. There, Wolf No. 745's sibling turned back, but he kept going.

It's not uncommon, biologists say, for lone wolves to venture off in search of territory and a mate.

The wolf mainly followed a water route, crossing the Roanoke and Chowan rivers at narrow points. While they don't mind getting wet, they avoid long swims.

The wolf likely followed smaller waterways during the nighttime and early-morning hours until he reached the edge of the Dismal Swamp refuge, stopping to eat every two or three days.

``They're on a binge-starvation diet,'' Morse said. ``They eat nutria, raccoons, rabbits, and if they happen to find a white-tailed deer, they eat that too. They're opportunistic.''

Eventually, Wolf No. 745 made his way through the swamp refuge to the eastern side, where he found the farm.

It was December before the wolf was returned to Alligator River, and by January, managers had paired him with a female.

``He stayed in the area this time,'' said Morse. ``He seemed to have no burning desire to leave.''

But the wolf's honeymoon didn't last. On a road in Tyrrell County to the west of the refuge, he became the 30th red wolf from the refuge to be killed by a car. The refuge staff learned of the death when his radio collar began transmitting in quick pulses, or ``mortality mode.''

It was not so ironic, Morse said, that an animal that survived such a perilous journey wound up being hit by a car in his own neighborhood: The only creature in nature on the wolves' enemy list is man. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

Map

No. 745's travels

For complete copy, see microfilm KEYWORDS: RED WOLF RED WOLVES

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